Way back in 2000 having seen Gautam Gambhir at the NCA nobody would have ventured that he would one day play for India and have centuries in both formats of the game.

In an array that included Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, Gambhir looked as just another young player who would play for his Ranji team and no more.

Looking back, my notes on his batting tell me that he was a middle order batsman who had a low stance where the gloves were below the knee and who took center stump guard and had no preliminary movement like a shuffle either off the back or front foot. That Gambhir has come on so well since then is due to his desire to learn and improve.

He asked questions then on how to get better and he asks questions even now which is why if one is not mistaken, his nickname in the dressing room is “Chloromint” after the famous commercial.

He is a good listener and that’s how his stance has changed to a more upright one and he has moved up the order to opening for his state team as well as for India and successfully at that. Being selected to lead the India team in the Emerging Team Contest in Colombo in 2003 delayed his entry into the senior Indian team as his teammate Akash Chopra got to play against the visiting New Zealand team, but a string of big scores in domestic tournaments and with Chopra having the ‘second seasonal blues’ meant Gambhir got the job which should have been his earlier.

Better late than never and though his current partner Sehwag may not have been too pleased with the omission of his good friend Chopra from the side, one is sure that he now appreciates the value of having a partner with a similar desire to dominate opening attacks at the other end. The left and right hand combination at the crease makes it hard for even the most experienced of bowlers in a One-day cricket game where umpires are pretty strict about wides.

Sri Lanka did concede wides and no balls and it’s an area that they have to work on for though wides are sometimes unavoidable in One-day cricket there should be virtually no overstepping by bowlers if they practice correctly. Sehwag is still struggling for runs and his essay in charge of the team albeit as substitute captain for the injured Dravid was not memorable as his bowlers could not defend a good total.

The captain Dravid played a superb innings too like Gambhir and inspite of these two hundreds the Indians were not able to put up a total around 300 because the others instead of trying to rotate the strike to the more set partner Dravid at the other end tried to play the big shots and perished and thus found themselves 20 to 30 runs short.

Tendulkar’s absence was not felt with the brilliant century by Gambhir but the absence of Pathan was definitely seen as both Sree Santh and R. P. Singh are still new and were unable to stem the flow of runs. J. P. Yadav, who hardly ever bowls his full quota of overs and bats way down the order has been dropped and V R V Singh taken in his place. Mohammad Kaif had to prove his match fitness by playing in a domestic tournament but V. R. V. Singh has come in after missing North Zone’s Duleep game with an injury and with no other domestic game to prove his fitness. It is here that Indian cricket needs to tighten up for fitness standards should not be subjective.

The Sri Lankans have shown greater resolve than in previous matches and apart from Jayasuriya, just about everybody made a contribution to the chase with Dilshan playing a capital innings to win the Man of the Match award. India lost for the greater cause of building a team and looking for options and hopefully its just a hiccup in what has been a most exciting start to the domestic season.